Watching children learn is a beautiful and extraordinary experience…. It is a kind of magic, a kind of loving, a kind of art. It is teaching. Just teaching. Just what I do. What I did. Past tense.In 2014, Gabrielle Stroud was a very dedicated teacher with over a decade of experience. Months later, she resigned in frustration and despair when she realised that the Naplan-test education model was stopping her from doing the very thing she was best at: teaching individual children according to their needs and talents. Her ground-breaking essay 'Teaching Australia' in the Feb 2016 Griffith Review outlined her experiences and provoked a huge response from former and current teachers around the world. That essay lifted the lid on a scandal that is yet to properly break - that our education system is unfair to our children and destroying their teachers. In a powerful memoir inspired by her original ground-breaking essay, Gabrielle tells the full story: how she came to teaching, what makes a great teacher, what our kids need from their teachers, and what it was that finally broke her. A brilliant and heart-breaking memoir that cuts to the heart of a vital matter of national importance.

"A powerful and moving memoir about how the current system is letting down children and parents and breaking dedicated teachers. Devastating, heart-breaking, enraging.
“An achingly heartfelt personal reflection on the way bureaucracy dehumanises and compromises our teachers and children…how the joy of teaching can be turned into despair and how children are becoming less important than outcomes. Heart-breaking.” NONI HAZLEHURST AM, actress, writer, director, broadcaster
“As gripping as a novel. As raw as a memoir. As important as anything I’ve ever read about education” JANE CARO, author and public education advocate.
“Gabbie's story needs to be shouted from the rooftops. She very eloquently shows us why and how education needs to change... Teacher made me laugh and cry. I loved it!” KATHY MARGOLIS, former teacher and activist."